1899] NEWS 307 
We learn from Science that Prof. Wm. Libbey and Dr. A. E. Ortmann of 
Princeton University have gone to dredge and explore in Inglefield Gulf on the 
steam whaler Diana, of the Peary Relief Expedition. 
Dr. Robert Logan Jack, late Government Geologist for Queensland, and 
special commissioner in charge of the exhibits at the Greater Britain Exhi- 
bition, has accepted an appointment from Mr. Pritchard Morgan to run some 
mining concessions in Szechuan, Korea, and North China. Dr. Jack sailed 
in September. 
Dr. J. B. Hatcher, of the Zoological Department of Princeton University, has 
returned from his expedition to Patagonia, and some account of his results is to 
be expected shortly in Sczence. 
Prof. John B. Smith gives in the Scventifjic American an interesting account 
of “an improved method of studying underground insects ”—by pouring liquid 
plaster of Paris into the burrows and digging out the cast after it has set. As 
he says, ‘concerning the habits of underground insects we are yet greatly in 
the dark, and much of our supposed knowledge is really inference from 
observations made upon the insects when at the surface, or from such ex- 
cavating as has been done in attempting to follow out the burrows of diggers.” 
It may be recalled that the Duke of Argyll used the plaster of Paris method in 
studying the burrows of the lugworm. 
The forty-fourth annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, at the 
Gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, 54 Pall Mall East, 
was opened to the public on Monday, September 25, for a period of seven 
weeks. 
The Tsar has recently ordered the allotment of three million roubles to 
found boarding-houses for University students ; and this has been followed by 
a Government proposal to establish and subsidise boarding-houses, scholarships, 
and even tutors for the children of the provincial nobility who are attending 
the middle-class schools. 
It is noted in a recent issue of the Scventific American that while Britain 
stands first in the production of slate, and France comes a good second, it will 
soon be necessary to place the United States well up in the list of competitors. 
The estimated world production is valued at 16 million dollars, of which 8+ 
millions fall to Britain, and over 33 to the States. 
The Zimes gives, from a report of the British Consul at Naples, an interest- 
ing account of the island of Procida, in the Bay of Naples. Unlike Ischia and 
Capri, it is very rarely visited by travellers, though in point of scenery it is 
almost superior to them. It is about two miles long by one mile broad, and 
carries the enormous population of 14,000 souls. Its sailors are the best in the 
Bay of Naples, and its little harbour is usually thronged with sailing vessels, 
which do the coasting trade of Italy and the neighbouring islands. The plateau 
in the centre of the island produces excellent wine and fruit. Some of the 
people manufacture very fine gut from silkworms. They call the product jili 
di seta, or “silk threads,” the special properties consisting in strength and 
flexibility. They are made from the stomachs of silkworms just before they 
begin to spin their silk and form their cocoons. Not many worms in proportion 
to the amount of gut put on the market are reared in Procida itself, but the 
makers buy them from Torre dell’ Annunziata and other neighbouring towns in 
great quantities. The worm when fully matured, that is, at the moment when 
its nourishment ceases, and just before its metamorphosis, is cut open, great 
care being taken not to injure the membrane of the stomach. This is then 
removed, and usually reaches the length of 13 to 20 millims., with a diameter 
of 1} to 2 millims. The stomachs are then put into a pickle, the secret of 
